Nevada beats UTEP in WAC final

Wolf Pack pulls away late and beats UTEP 66-60

By Nathan Hathaway

As Nevada basked in the glow of its first NCAA Tournament bid in 20 years, Todd Okeson choked up and Kirk Snyder soaked in the cheers of “one more year.”

In a tight game that saw the lead change hands 16 times, including seven times in an eight-minute stretch of the second half, Nevada used a late-game push to put away Texas-El Paso 66-60 and claim the Western Athletic Conference championship on Saturday at the Save Mart Center. The win gave Nevada an automatic bid to play in the NCAA Tournament. It was announced yesterday that Nevada, which drew a No. 10 seed, will face No. 7 Michigan State on Thursday in Seattle.

Okeson, Nevada’s sharp-shooting senior, couldn’t help but tear up as Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best” played from the loudspeakers.

And Snyder, the Wolf Pack’s junior guard who some project to go to the NBA after this season, cocked his ear as if straining to hear the thousand or so Nevada fans imploring him to come back for his senior season.

The Wolf Pack scored nine points in the final three minutes, 13 seconds to take its final lead and hold on for the win.

“Heck of a game to watch,” UTEP coach Billy Gillispie said. “If you like intensity.

“ For a fan watching the game, it probably wasn’t real pretty, but to me that was a beautiful basketball game, a defensive battle like that.”

It certainly wasn’t real pretty. Both teams shot less than 33 percent from the field and combined for 41 fouls.

The difference for the Wolf Pack was free-throw shooting. Not only did Nevada get to the line eight more times than UTEP, but the Wolf Pack hit nearly 81 percent of its foul shots, compared to the Miners’ 67 percent.

The biggest difference for Nevada, however, was WAC player of the year and tournament MVP Snyder, who came up with big plays when his team needed them. Snyder had 11 points and 14 rebounds in helping his team to its seventh straight win and 10th in 11 games.

Nevada’s Kevinn Pinkney led all scorers with 15 points to go along with nine rebounds, and Okeson added 14.

UTEP’s freshman all-WAC and all-tournament point guard Filiberto Rivera led the Miners with 14 points, nine rebounds and six assists.

Gillispie, confident his team would get an at-large-bid to the Tournament, was just happy with his team’s effort.

“ If you’re going to lose a game, you might as well lose it like that,” Gillispie said. “Our guys left guts out there on the floor. I couldn’t be prouder of my guys. We just got beat by a heck of a team.

“ I think today we were just playing for seeding (in the NCAA Tournament).”

The selection committee proved Gillispie right, giving UTEP a bid to the tournament, where the 13th-seeded Miners will play fourth-seeded Maryland on Thursday in Denver.

WOMEN’S FINAL

The Louisiana Tech women’s team won its third straight Western Athletic Conference title in as many years on Saturday.

And the Bulldogs did it with style, using a dominant second half for the 76-52 win over second-seeded Rice.

Top-seeded Louisiana Tech, the nation’s sixth-ranked team, learned Sunday that it earned a fifth seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Bulldogs open against Montana on Saturday.

Louisiana Tech led by six points at halftime before pulling away in the second half behind a double-double from tournament MVP Amisha Carter. She scored 18 points and grabbed 16 rebounds in the title game. The Bulldogs were led by Erica Smith-Taylor’s 22 points.